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I have been teaching English as a foreign language in Japan for over 15 years. Since early in my career, my universities have had an online LMS component available for all of my courses. However, I had always seen it as just a place to park files for students who missed class. It was also a handy resource to see the student rosters to check the spelling of someone’s name or their email address. However, I never saw it as a tool to manage a class or distribute and assess assignments. This changed after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the pandemic, all classes shifted from in-person instruction to online. Therefore, I had to rely on it and video-conferencing apps to conduct my classes. At first it was, just as Professor Cope said in one of the videos for this course, a replication of everything I did in my normal class placed online. I ran the same lessons, had students read passages and do practice exercises in the textbook and submit their answers for grading online. I had set times for regular class periods for lecture and discussion. However, after a year and a half of teaching in the new normal, I have started to adapt my lessons to take advantage of the “ubiquitous learning environment” (Kalantzis and Cope 2012) we live in today. I create assignments and activities that should be done within a time frame, but not a specific time. Class meetings are done from any location (home, library, café, car, bus, etc.) and with any device (PC, tablet, smartphone). The meetings can also be recorded, so students who cannot be present at a designated time can join on-demand. However, this power does have its drawbacks. Students have no excuse for missing meetings or assignments, since lectures and assignments are always available. Also, I am expected to be available for questions or troubleshooting at all times and have been criticized for not responding to a late Friday evening email by the following day.

Reference

Kalantzis, M. & Cope, B. (2012). New Learning: A Charter for Change in Education. Critical Studies in Education, v53 n.1 p83-94. https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-1-new-learning/supporting-material-1/kalantzis-and-cope-a-charter-for-change-in-education